


An Open Heart

by talibusorabat (hermitcave)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Flash Fic, Gen, Genderbending, Gift Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-14
Updated: 2013-12-14
Packaged: 2018-01-04 15:05:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1082450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hermitcave/pseuds/talibusorabat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zuko never understood why her uncle decided to accompany her into exile.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Open Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [skygrace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/skygrace/gifts).



Zuko never understood why her uncle decided to accompany her into exile. It wasn't like they had ever been that close. Uncle Iroh wasn't progressive like her father; he had old-school Fire Nation ideas about the role of women. He'd never bothered to get to know Zuko or her sister, always sent them pretty dolls from the foreign lands he visited even though Azula hated dolls and Zuko... well, Zuko liked dolls, but she liked knives a lot better. He'd never been anything more to her than the loud, cheerful man who would come home sometimes and regale his family with the myths and traditions of the cultures he conquered.

The only thing she could guess was that he felt guilty. Azula had pestered and pestered and pestered him until finally Iroh relented and allowed both Fire Nation princesses to attend one of the war strategy meetings. The meeting wherein Zuko protested the general's plan to sacrifice hundreds of ground troops, the meeting that sparked the Agni Kai and her exile.

She never asked Iroh about it. She didn't want to hear him say "I regret letting you in. I knew women were too weak to handle war." But for some reason, the question was on her mind tonight more than ever. Oh who was she kidding -- of course it was on her mind tonight. Tonight was the anniversary of her exile. A year since she had been banished; a year that she had been a princess without a kingdom.

"You look troubled, Niece." Zuko tensed, and did not look at her uncle. She had come up to the deck to clear her thoughts, not to chat! Why couldn't he just leave her alone?

"Probably because I have troubles," she grumbled.

"You shouldn't let you mind dwell on the past," he chided her gently. "Embrace what it has to teach you, and then let it go."

"What it has to teach me?" she snapped. "What's that? That I'm a failed princess? That I'm a disappointment to my family, my ancestors, the entire nation? If that's what it has to teach me, then I refuse to learn."

Uncle Iroh looked surprised, perhaps by her vehemence.

"Is that really what you think?" he asked.

"What else am I supposed to think?" She couldn't look at him as she spoke.

Sighing, the older man leaned against the railing. "Perhaps you should try listening to it again. If you open your heart, you will find it has something new to tell you."

"I'm in no mood for your riddles, Uncle."

That just earned her a smile. He was maddening like that -- always smiling at inappropriate moments.

"It's not a riddle," he told her. "It's the truth. And I can tell you that it works from experience. I used to think that I knew everything about how the world worked. I knew right from wrong, just from unjust, brave from cowardly. And then a young girl stood before a group of men three times her age and passionately defended soldiers that she had never met. And when it ended badly, she did not run away from the consequences, but faced them head on. At that moment, I realized that I still had much to learn, even at my age. With an open heart, I have learned many more things over the past year. I've learned that compassion is not an indulgence, but a source of strength. I have learned that as delicate as a wildflower may look, it can survive the harshest winter to bloom again in spring. I have learned that things are not always as they seem."

He reached out to squeeze her shoulder. "Keep an open heart, Princess Zuko. I promise that if you do, you will look back and find much to learn."


End file.
